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Are the Democrats out of touch with the average American?

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My avatar is not a Drumpf hat
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Really liked this vid from The Enemy Within, a new-ish channel as far as I can tell, on how the Republicans are being so much more successful than Democrats at reaching rural voters: They speak their language, and their messages (lies) are easily digestable to workers who also don't have time or energy after long working days to fact-check them.

Some NSFW content.

 
Americans in general are entirely out of touch, cut off by two oceans from experiencing the rest of the world, thereby trapped in an echo chamber. Case in point: American gun debates are 100% self-referential, admitting no evidence from the outside world. There is little to no awareness of reason or causality, rather, a mythical attachment to shredded Calvinist postulates, at best.

Speaking, of course, of the USA as do Americans of other nations, taking its salient features of the day as characteristic of the whole. Fair practice, then.

American vocabulary is fully Orwellian, with people such as Trump using contradictory word salad (Dems are communists and fascists, OMG!). Then there are the so-called "Libertarians", known as tax dodgers in sane countries, who are now mute witnesses to the end of the liberty they so disingenuously defend. This is an undereducated, overstimulated population fixated on wealth and power, the American Dream, no place to look for sane and stable people.

The spectacle that is the USA, out of touch with factual reality, is both frightening in a Third Reich sense, and hilarious in the Keystone Cop tradition.
 
They speak their language, and their messages (lies) are easily digestable to workers who also don't have time or energy after long working days to fact-check them
Haven't got the spoons for a 17 minute video, but this sentence chimes with me and is something I noticed during the election campaign.

The Harris campaign was basically just more complicated than Trump's.

"They're eating the dogs, they're eating the cats" is much punchier than Taylor Swift's essay expecting you to spend time and do your own research.

tl;dr? Long Dem video, ironically too complicated like the Dem campaign.
 
Haven't got the spoons for a 17 minute video, but this sentence chimes with me and is something I noticed during the election campaign.

The Harris campaign was basically just more complicated than Trump's.

"They're eating the dogs, they're eating the cats" is much punchier than Taylor Swift's essay expecting you to spend time and do your own research.

tl;dr? Long Dem video, ironically too complicated like the Dem campaign.
Yes. Slogans are so much more digestible than policies.

Slogans don't really help you govern but then again the Republicans have no real interest in governing.
 
It's not our fault they misunderstand every single thing. And then grab on to every conspiracy. They can drink themselves to death with raw milk.
 
It's almost like when you call folks "bitter clingers" and a "basket of deplorables," they don't take the constructive criticism in the spirit it was offered.
 
It's almost like when you call folks "bitter clingers" and a "basket of deplorables," they don't take the constructive criticism in the spirit it was offered.
And yet flinging epithets in the other direction actually enhances electability. Go figga?
 
And yet flinging epithets in the other direction actually enhances electability. Go figga?
What "other direction" are you talking about? Epithets against urban dwellers would seem to be the opposite to rural voters, but perhaps you mean un-average Americans?
 
Since when was any MAGAchud an "average American"? They are so far from "average" that they can't see it from the back of their coal-rolling pickup. Can't spell the word either.

But if these MAGAchuds ARE "average Americans", then the USA is in deep, deep trouble. It means the sensible, thoughtful, educated Americans of all political stripes, the ones that made the USA truly great, are becoming a vanishing rarity.
 
Living in communities where people are poor, contact outside family is not much and education is worthless, they have a culture of their own. The oxycontin people found them and had a solution that was easier than voting.
Watch:

Painkiller. The causes and consequences of America's opioid epidemic unfold in this drama following its perpetrators, victims and an investigator seeking the truth.
 
Since when was any MAGAchud an "average American"? They are so far from "average" that they can't see it from the back of their coal-rolling pickup. Can't spell the word either.

But if these MAGAchuds ARE "average Americans", then the USA is in deep, deep trouble. It means the sensible, thoughtful, educated Americans of all political stripes, the ones that made the USA truly great, are becoming a vanishing rarity.
They became the average American when Trump was re-elected with close to 50% of the popular vote.
 
Nick on Threads on that same category of MAGAts:
I asked why republicans hate liberals.

Good christ, the amount of just pure unadulterated hate based on conspiracy theories is astonishing. It’s not even based in any kind of real world patterns. It either is based on things that don’t happen, or happened once, under extreme circumstances, four years ago.

The most disgusting thing I was told is screenshotted in a comment. I’m not even gonna mince words: I told the guy that I feel bad his child has to deal with him. 
 
I wonder how much misogony played in, too. Remember, the Democrats have won every primary and midterm election since 2012 --except the two where they fielded a female candidate. Even when the alternative was overt and shameless fascism.
 
I wonder how much misogony played in, too. Remember, the Democrats have won every primary and midterm election since 2012 --except the two where they fielded a female candidate. Even when the alternative was overt and shameless fascism.
I agree. I've said before, I blame the country's current mess at least partly on Beau Biden. Because if he hadn't died, Joe would have run in 2016, and had he been nominated he'd have beaten Trump hands down.
 
It's almost like when you call folks "bitter clingers" and a "basket of deplorables," they don't take the constructive criticism in the spirit it was offered.
Who cares what they think? They weren't going to vote Democrat anyway. The only thing Hillary got wrong about the Deplorables was not realizing there were so many of them. It wasn't criticism, but a warning to the rest of us. Sadly many didn't heed that warning and figured they didn't need to vote.

The Deplorables didn't mind being called that, they welcomed it. Except for you of course. You were favoring Hillary right up until she made that statement, right? Oh wait...
 
But if these MAGAchuds ARE "average Americans", then the USA is in deep, deep trouble. It means the sensible, thoughtful, educated Americans of all political stripes, the ones that made the USA truly great, are becoming a vanishing rarity.
Finally someone who gets it...

But don't worry. When Trump got in the first time I figured the chaos would be good for Democrats. It was, but not enough to last more than 4 years (unfortunately Covid put a spanner in the works). So now we need another 4 years to put the final nails in the coffin. Let's hope Democrats don't screw it up this time!

Just remember, all the craziness going on in the Republican camp right now is a good thing. I especially like how one tweet from Musk and they ignore what Trump wants. Yes Donald, you welcomed the scorpion onboard and now he's stinging you.
 
Who cares what they think?
I dunno, maybe politicians who want to win? We kept hearing that Trump was another Hitler, and now he's not only been reelected but he's got 53 GOP Senators. The Democrats can console themselves that even if they lost, at least they didn't win by caring about what rural and blue collar folks think.
 
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Oh, and we are toxic. Manchin:
“The D-brand has been so maligned from the standpoint of, it’s just, it’s toxic,” Manchin told CNN’s Manu Raju in an interview airing Sunday, citing the shift as the reason why he left the party.
“They have basically expanded upon thinking, ‘Well, we want to protect you there, but we’re going to tell you how you should live your life from that far on,’” Manchin added.

Manchin cast progressives — a small number of lawmakers within the party who he claims have an outsize influence — as being out of touch with the majority of Americans.

“This country is not going left,” he said.
CNN

Well, we never asked them to turn their boys to girls. Just to stop the dictator.
 
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Oh, and we are toxic. Manchin:
“The D-brand has been so maligned from the standpoint of, it’s just, it’s toxic,” Manchin told CNN’s Manu Raju in an interview airing Sunday, citing the shift as the reason why he left the party.
“They have basically expanded upon thinking, ‘Well, we want to protect you there, but we’re going to tell you how you should live your life from that far on,’” Manchin added.

Manchin cast progressives — a small number of lawmakers within the party who he claims have an outsize influence — as being out of touch with the majority of Americans.

“This country is not going left,” he said.
CNN

Well, we never asked them to turn their boys to girls. Just to stop the dictator.
Well the Dems do need to rethink their strategy that's true but the last person they need to listen to is "we need to push even further to the right" Manchin. He is the epitome of everything wrong with the party.
 
Eggs and butter and schools turning boys into girls were the fad of the 2024 election. And 100% of Trump voters forgot what infaltion is. Harris totally fake whereaas Trump was a genuine idiot.
Russell argued that Trump’s high marks reflect a “honeymoon” period, which she predicted will fade once he takes office: “Once things start happening, it’s going to take a turn, and so it’s going to rely really heavily on the actions in the first 100 days to see how we go from here.”

She also noted that the polling suggests openings for Democrats on issues like abortion, health care and taxing the rich, as well as a fear that Trump may go too far on tariffs. Their survey also showed that two-thirds of voters said inflation should be the incoming president’s top issue, but only a third of voters believed it was Trump’s or Republicans’ top issue.

When the focus group participants were asked about inflation and tariffs, many of them said they didn’t fully understand the policy, while others acknowledged they expected prices to go up.

“Obviously I wouldn’t want stuff to go up, but at the same time, in the long run, would it be better off for America and maybe having more stuff made here?” said one man from Wisconsin.

“It seemed like a lot of what she came out and said wasn’t really off-the-cuff, wasn’t coming from her,” said another man who voted for Biden in 2020 and Trump in 2024. “Seemed like every interview, every time she came out and talked about something, it was planned out and never her thoughts, didn’t seem genuine to her thoughts, whereas, Trump, even though you never really knew what he was going to say, when he was going to say it, it was always him and genuine to what he thought, so that’s what swayed me.”
 
Eggs and butter and schools turning boys into girls were the fad of the 2024 election.
It took me too long to realize you weren't relating a myth that eggs and butter turn boys into girls. It says something when I read that and thought it was entirely plausible that millions of people would believe that could happen.
 
How to talk down to people without showing that you are talking down to them?

When they are at the voting booth they vote mostly from tradition: the same party. Or they are independent, where the choice is also simple: the one you hate less. But if there are options, then the thing that comes to mind is the TV ad. Name recognition is most important. After that gut feel. If they heard the candidate speak, they mostly made up their mind on how the person spoke. Not what they said, just the personality and the tone of voice. The way you sell mattresses and Prevagen is how you sell candidates.
 
WE: He is a liar.
MAGA woman: But the foreigners!
Now she begs Trump not to cut her benefits.
But but.....she still thinks he is on the side of the poor.
How are we ever going to communicate with her?
 
WE: He is a liar.
MAGA woman: But the foreigners!
Now she begs Trump not to cut her benefits.
But but.....she still thinks he is on the side of the poor.
How are we ever going to communicate with her?
You're not, but the party leadership is still going to insist on tacking to the right to try. They would rather insist on fhasing after unreachable repugs rather than trying to retain or regain their traditional communities.

It's the trap the traditional left parties have laid for themselves ever since the USSR collapsed, that they must forever chase the right in economic and most social policy rather than sticking to their own.
 
Haven't got the spoons for a 17 minute video, but this sentence chimes with me and is something I noticed during the election campaign.

The Harris campaign was basically just more complicated than Trump's.

"They're eating the dogs, they're eating the cats" is much punchier than Taylor Swift's essay expecting you to spend time and do your own research.

tl;dr? Long Dem video, ironically too complicated like the Dem campaign.'
Well that's what happens when you put simple fantasies up against complicated reality. It's not that Democrats are out of touch with sections of the voting public its that those voters are out of touch with reality. Trump tells them there are easy, comfortable answer to every problem and its reached the point where believing him is part of their identity. There is a section of the US population that consistently resists policy ideas that will benefit them, look at the reaction to the ACA, and even when they do reject some right wing policy, see overturning Roe v Wade they don't care enough about to actually vote for someone who wants to fix things. They form a simple solid bloc while the Democrats have to try and piece together a broad coalition. I think when historians have a chance to get some perspective they will see that the US system has been fundamentally broken since at least the end of the Cold War, the USA you thought you knew is gone, whatever comes next will be something as different as the 1860 USA was from that of 1945.
 
Maybe just run actual used car salesmen next time? One a democrat and one a republican.
"My opponent is trying to sell you a used Tesla! Do you know how much the batteries cost?"
 
I'm not sure how there is a belief here that Harris ran a sophisticated campaign. Hillary, sure. Harris? Could we get back to reality please. She was in no way a policy hawk. She went with vibes and lost.

On the main question, it's not that democrats are out of touch. They simply refuse to engage where voters are. Immigration for example. You can drag out any graph or study showing levels where immigration are optimal but you have to concede and acknowledge the costs. Because the swing states aren't overly burdened, they keep their views in line with what they believe their voting block would like. They sloganeer on the positives, on the charity of the average American, but ignore those that experience issues. Worse yet, they label them xenophobic, racist etc.

Selectively some here want to say "because they are!!" And that's why you lose people. If trade workers complain about downward wage pressure, I don't see much sympathy. Watch those same people cry bloody murder at expanding h1b visas.

We have to acknowledge everyone is going to advocate for their own self interest. There is nothing wrong with thay.
 
We had some success with Biden and unions. But unions are not MAGA.
I was not happy in 2023 when Biden decided to run. But at the same time it was a strange race, in that Harris was largely unknown. Who do we run? A governor? Of those 60% that turned up to vote maybe half had some idea who she was and could even quote something they liked or hated. The rest had a label: typical democrat.

Anyway, Biden would not have won if he stayed in, even if that disasterous debate never had happened.

Lesson: do not run any candidates that cannot run two terms. And we need one that is not a lawyer. That goes for local races too. We have state senators that are lawyers, but they only win in cities. A Democrat farmer here is a possibility, we have one of two.
 
The Dems are perfectly in touch with voters. They just don't give a ◊◊◊◊ about them. People like Sen Sanders and Rep Ocasio-Cortez are few and far between and will not weild a ton of influence because they are not power players, and kind of can't be, definitionally.
 

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